When one thinks of chronic or persistent pain one often thinks in terms of the biologic pathways of pain perception. However, an important component of pain involves of the psychosocial aspects of coping with a chronic illness. Disciplines across the health professions, including medicine, nursing, psychology, social work, and sociology, are actively engaged in understanding the psychosocial and emotional consequences of chronic pain and illness: Yet few studies have addressed the use of web-based tools, such as blogs, in the patient experience of living with chronic pain or illness.

The goal of this research was to explore the use of patient illness blogs as a means of communicating the experience of chronic pain and illness and to articulate the unique set of benefits and barriers of blogging. Qualitative data from 230 current illness bloggers were collected and analyzed to better understand the self-perceived psychosocial and health effects associated with the blogging activity. Results suggest that blogging about chronic pain and illness may decrease a sense of isolation through the establishment of online connections with others and increases a sense of purpose to help others in similar situations. While the authors’ acknowledge the study limitations, they are hopeful that further research will be conducted to explore the observed associations between communicating the experience of chronic pain through blogging and patients’ coping and self-efficacy when living with chronic pain or illness.

Discussion about international collaboration between Xiaoshu Zhu (University of Western Sydney, Australia), Ewan McNichol (PREP program faculty, TUSM) and MS-PREP program graduate and acupuncturist, Kindreth Hamilton